Alonso retracts Valencia criticism

Having pilloried the European Grand Prix stewards in the 48 hours following the race, Ferrari have begun to tone down their criticism of Sunday’s event.

Fernando Alonso was first to take a step back from his earlier criticism of the race as “manipulated”, saying “we should talk about it together in a calm way, to ensure that things like this do not happen again.”

We were particularly unlucky in terms of the timing of when the safety car appeared on track. It would have only needed a few seconds more or less to totally change our race. It does not achieve much going over the events that followed on. Obviously, in the clear light of day, I am much calmer than I was in the moments immediately following the race.

At the time, I reacted emotionally and in that situation, it is all too easy to adopt a tone and say things that can be interpreted wrongly, giving rise to suspicions, something which I had no intention of doing.

Sure, I understand that the stewards have a difficult job to do and they have to take decisions that are not easy. What I meant was that those drivers who, like us, respected the regulations, unfortunately, in this situation, suffered much more than those who broke them, even though they were given a penalty.

And I am not referring to any of the drivers in particular: it?óÔé¼Ôäós a general matter and I think we should talk about it together in a calm way, to ensure that things like this do not happen again. I was pleased to hear that the FIA has reacted promptly, calling an extraordinary meeting of the Sporting Working Group and I am confident, certain even, that all the points up for discussion will be cleared up in a comprehensive fashion.Fernando Alonso

Team mate Felipe Massa, who lost even more places than Alonso during the safety car period, added:

What happened needs to be looked into because it is not normal than someone commits a serious infraction like overtaking the safety car, when there is a dangerous situation on track and is not really penalised in practical terms.

We must talk about this together and do something to ensure a situation like this does not happen again. The team has told me that, next week there will be a meeting of the Sporting Working Group: that?óÔé¼Ôäós good and it?óÔé¼Ôäós an obvious indication that the FIA is paying close attention to the matter.Felipe Massa

Still Alonso does have the excuse of things said in anger, his retraction has merit, an being fair he never really went for Hamilton himself, don’t think attacking his biggest rival particularly appeals to him. Domenacali at the time probably took the wisest course at the time, expressed his anger then no commented.

However later and the next day, along with the rest of Ferrari they all poured in calling scandal and manipulation, “in the cold light of day”. Alonso’s retraction is reasonable, he had a right to miffed an he may have said certain things he didn’t mean, not so much the rest of them, an they haven’t apologised yet.

As a McLaren fan it did get slightly arm wavy mouth droppy to sit there listening to Ferrari claim Charlie Whiting an the FIA were manipulating the championship in McLarens favour.

Many have made the good point that all this looking back can do F1 no good, but come on! Are they hearing themselves, have they heared of irnoy, do they really belive the rubbish they’re spouting, an were was the indignation when Ferrari International Assistance was calling the shots?

@miguelF1O
eeer I should be ashamed? That’s a bit personal. Anyway what have McLaren got to be ashmed of as a team? One of their drivers made a mistake, an was punished, though late due to intervening circumstances. Only Ferrari thought it looked crooked, an my friend as you will just have read in the article, they are now apoligising for saying so, saying all that suggestion of it being a crooked race was merley heat of the moment anger.

Get your facts right please, an don’t tell me I should be ashamed for my opinion or which team I happen to support.

Mohammed, well thats your opinion, certainly the way the penalty was invesigated an handled was suspicious an it was just one of any number of penalties McLaren, an any other team threatening Ferrari incurred from about 98 onwards which pointed to bias from the FIA.

I absolutely do not agree, and I’d like to explain my reasons for it, but I can not be bothered to start it all up again. I simply want to say that people still think it was a terrible decision and even if you do agree with that penalty, it was certainly far more of an issue due to the much larger furore surrounding it.

lol, I was just trying to say that regardless of whether you agreed with that or not, it was certainly a bigger scandal. But my comment seems to have started up exactly the debate about 2008 I was trying to avoid :S

@matt90. Just watch the Suzuka race of 2005, where Fernando overtook Klein with a maneuver similar to that of Hamiltons’s in Spa 2008. Alonso was asked 10 laps later, to wait for Klein to pass him and then overtake him fair and square again. In the process, Alonso lost close to 10-15secs and a potential victory.

I completely agree with the penalty handed to to Hamilton and there was no foul play on the part of Ferrari out there. I honestly can say that Hamilton has gotten away with a lot of shenanigans this year.

ahh spa 2008, Hamilton played by the rules, and then the fia changed them to fit the penalty.

The problem was that the Mclaren was so much faster under the damp conditions, under normal circumstances, Hamilton wouldn’t have been able to overtake at the next corner after giving up so much speed on the straight.

Exactly Sam, I had forgotten that bit, which is the main point ! Hamilton did what had long been accepted, he gave the place back and went again. Then all of a sudden it was no, you have to give the place back then wait two corners, then go again. ???
Anyway I digress.

If you feel that Spa 08 was bad driving from Hamilton, an he did gain a place by driving on the margins of legality, then it just shows how good the FIA have been this season.

When someone does something a bit off, an the whole affair was a crock in the end, reprimand and clarify, punish next time. So the right way to be doing things, it’s the way laws have always been developed learn from precedents. The FIA inconsitancy wasted 16 years of precedents an made the rules infinitley less clear an open to manipulation.

They invented a Hamilton-Spa Rule at that race to retroactively punish Hamilton. Let’s see if there is a new Hamilton-Valencia rule. Maybe it can state:

Notwithstanding any other provision of the Sporting Regulations, any driver who overtakes the SC, whether or not the violation is intentional or reckless, will be placed behind Fernando Alonso. Any penalty granted under the rule will not be subject to appeal.

While I can see your point I really think people have to look at this in the bigger window of the effect on the sport.
Luca di Montezemelo is a huge threat to the sport with his outbursts about the FIA, the new teams etc. It all looks like sour grapes on his part and he should be sanctioned under the same regulations that others get hammered on for do things that bring the sport into disrepute.
Alonzo, while a good driver and world champion, does frequently make some pretty stupid mistakes one of them being over driving and putting the car into the wall or off track. He made a positioning error off turn 2 in Canada which allowed JB to pass. That was, in Luca’s view, the fault of a new team car being too slow.
If Luca can escape without sanction for calling the FIA out in public as he did what’s the big deal with Hamilton? How is it so different?
For sure the FIA needs to adopt NASCAR or Indy Car rules around the SC, have it pick up the leader and position everyone in order before the pits are open. It needs to define when the pits are open after the field has been aligned and when they can pass when the SC comes off track. The only reason to pit when pits are closed now is a blown tire and the penalty can be set for that as it is with low fuel in NASCAR. The bottom line these attacks out of Maranello have to stop. I for one do not see anything sincere here in Alonzo’z “apology”. What I see is expeditious damage control so Todt will not come down hard on Ferrari and with the Ferrari blood he has in his veins I suspect it will suffice.

“I was pleased to hear that the FIA has reacted promptly, calling an extraordinary meeting of the Sporting Working Group and I am confident, certain even, that all the points up for discussion will be cleared up in a comprehensive fashion.”

Where was the source for this Keith? was it a writen statement or did Fernando actually say it. That paragraph I’ve quoted just doesn’t sound like something Alonso would say out load and given that Felipe eneded with a similar I have every faith in the FIA makes me very skeptical that these are the drivers own words.

or the other alternative is that it was translated from Italian/Spanish and therefore he’s sounding different to how he usually would in English

Given what he says or the ghost writer says in the rest of the blog I’m certain that he hasn’t really changed his veiw of the incident. Of course he’s no longer in the heat of the moment and has moderated his criticism of the stewards, but he’s probably still rightly furious that Hamilton benifited from breaking the rules and he suffered massively from obeying them. Especially when its seems that Hamilton may well have done it intentionally.

Another important bit is how he talks of channeling it as positive energy, some of his best performances have come such as Monza 2006, Spa and Monza 2007 and Singapore 2009 all at times when he had a siege mentality after huge controversy.

I think both Ferrari and Alonso did the right thing (Massa already commented much more relaxed shortly after the race), calm down, tone down the crying foul and get working at improving the situation.

I am a little curious, weather the FIA had to give explicit hints of the need to cut the anger out or Ferrari realized they were hurting themselves most from it.

Also there might just have been an element of purpose in this.
Just think of the harsh critisizm of the combined Italian and Spanish press of Alonso, the Team and Luca for having their new cure-all exhaust system and a working F-duct and still they end up only 8th and 12th(penalty corrected)! Ferrari would have seen riots for 2 weeks and cries to dump the lot of them immediately.

Also interesting to compare Brawn calling for “clarification” about the red pit light and the way Ferrari / Alonso ACTED.
I am pretty sure Brawn (in cooperation with Witmarsh) did more to get the FIA at the table and discuss how to improve than Luca acheived here.

I agree that Ferrari got pretty hysterical about it, but when you watch Alonso’s interviews with the BBC he’s clearly very angry, but he’s extremely matter of fact and says nothing unreasonable. His argument that it was unfair that Hamilton benifited from breaking the rules and he suffered from obeying them was and is extrememly valid.

Also completly agree. Its the fact you do everything by the book and then you get a 12th place and someone who brakes the rules (and i think overtaking SC and a medical car is as far as you can go) get a lovley reward of geting a panelty some 15 laps later so you can stay second…

The FIA is yawning that it hasn’t got authority, but how can you have it if you let a driver get away with such breaking of rules… in my opinion the only right penelty would be (considering how long did it take to review the tape) disqualification or at least 10 seconds stop&go (which as far as i know was not possible by the regulations).

I have a surprising amount of respect for after this. And if it was Ferrari who pressured him into it, then I’ve gained a surprising amount of respect for them- especially as their boss isn’t known for withdrawing criticism, normally he just raises it to a more ridiculous level. This was the sensible thing to do. I do wonder though whether the FIA had a word which lead to this…

Also, I think he is still probably referencing Hamilton more than anyone, but it needs to be noted that he didn’t intentionally overtake the safety car and had he hesitated for a fraction of a second less he would have ended in the same position (maybe challenged Vettel too) completely legitimately. Although had that happened then Alonso would still have been in the unfortunate position he was in before (assuming he didn’t quite make it past the safety car) only he would have had nobody to complain at other than circumstance itself.

…had he hesitated for a fraction of a second less he would have ended in the same position (maybe challenged Vettel too) completely legitimately. Although had that happened then Alonso would still have been in the unfortunate position he was in before (assuming he didnâ€™t quite make it past the safety car) only he would have had nobody to complain at other than circumstance itself.

Look, a certain number of fans belived Hamilton did it on purpose but I’m afraid the alligences of people on both side of the argument was always fairly partisan. A plurality is a great turn of phrase to hide the fact that there was no concensus. Mostly the only decent answer not based on speculation or loyalty was that we can never know, the two leading theories on Hamiltons actions are both equally plausible and in different ways equally unlikley.

Alonso is apoligising because either he or the team realise he has made his situation untenable an has started to damage the teams integrity, Race Controll was dealing with something far more important than Hamiltons minor infraction an so normal procedure was delayed, an suggestions of manipulation were ridiculous. Alonso’s apoligised because he and the team gave the FIA good reason to come down on them.

In the end I thought that Hamilton wouldn’t have had time to think about what he was doing to Alonso’s race, any canny he may have had when he sped back up was soley on what being being behind the saftey car would do to his race, there’s also no way he could’ve factored in Kobayashi.

I could understand ferrari’s frustration if hamilton had overtaken the SC whilst under full SC conditions. The problem was that the overtake took place 1 or 2 metres from the SC line. (not very visible from the cockpit of a formula one car). Yes hamilton probably knew about where it was. But not precisely and thought (after hesitation) that he would make it. Ferarri, start racing your races and not trying to pull everyone else back. Hats off to Hamilton for managing to get under rivals skin without trying.

The safety car driver drove erratically while leaving the pit lane. He at first attempted to cross the thick line into the race track. Hamilton was forced to slow down, the safety car now corrected itself and accelerated. Same time Hamilton tried to race it to the safety car line.

It’s all good. But their continued stance and demand, with respect to Hamilton, that it was unfair that his penalty had little effect is boring now. It makes no sense. It is exactly like saying a soccer team profited by cheating if they block a penalty kick earned with even the most heinous foul, as someone else said.

Anyway, does Massa really want a set of rules where a penalty must precisely create the situation that would occur but for the infraction, rather than the intent and aggravation(e.g., recklessness) of the foul? This would mean, for example, that letting off the pit limiter a hair early, and earning yourself a drive-through, should justifiably be met with howls of injustice. It has to work both ways. There is a limited set of penalties and range of discretion for a reason. The fact that they per se and in some situations, produce “under” or “over” punishment is factored into the bargain when the rules are made. And you factor that into your choice of how much to risk breaking them.

So they will continue with this sorry insinuation, that Hamilton profited by cheating, and it will go down forever in the book of grievances Ferrari have against the jealous, hating world, ruled by mean Englishmen. I hope Ferrari’s caterers bring many liters of ice cold Haterade to the season finale or wherever Hamilton may clinch, because they may realize a terrible thirst.

Ferrari are just lining up their excuses for not winning anything this season. Again. Seems odd given Alonso isn’t that far off right now and Red Bull can probably be relied on to be unreliable still, so I guess they are genuinely worried McLaren will leap ahead with their version of the blown diffuser. Or something. Actually I’ve no idea what goes on in Ferrari minds, but slightly deranged it certainly looks…

Hamilton’s response was bitingly good:
– Asked if Alonso’s comments were a case of sour grapes, Hamilton replied: “Yeah. I even saw him overtaken by a Sauber on the big screen. It’s very unlike him to be overtaken by a Sauber so he must have been completely in another world.”
Salt. Wound. Enjoy Fernando!

Actually Hamilton here again shows hes real face. Getting overaken by Kobayashi on NEW SOFT TYRES isnt that much of a brag. Unles if you havent got nothing to say in youre defence and you just skip to attack, even with a really really bad argument and of coure personal accusation… a shamefull act from Lewis, which in my opinion is the wors person in whole F1

It’s a very measured wind-up for the personal vendetta against him by Alonso and Ferrari. But enough, I can’t be bothered to argue against this Hamilton-rage anymore, and I’m being heavily modded for trying to do so.

Jenson Button was ripping off some very quick laps on some pretty ancient tires, wasn’t he. As was Hamilton near the end. Fact remains, Alonso laying down rose petals on the road for Kobayashi was inexcusable. Ferrari on old tires no match, helpless, before a Sauber on new tires is not a good story for Alonso. The best you can say about the situation is that Ferrari’s mythical Ferrari “race pace” failed to appear once more.

Anyone else think that Jean Todt has had a quiet word with them about this? Convening the Sporting Working Group seems to be a simultaneous message of “yeah ok, let’s look at this” and “shut your mouth before you dig a really big hole for yourself”.

Personally i have a feeling Ross Brawn (his red light clarification) and Withmarsh (for FOTA) did more to get the FIA at the table do discuss improvements.

The information on that meeting was into the media this morning (or maybe late yesterday) so this would have probably been a reaction to that or part of the “deal” with the FIA not to push on argueing.

Seeing as Alonso and Ferrari were completely correct in their original comments made after the race, this retraction has damaged them imo. Not as much as it’s damaged McLaren and the FIA though – just because McLaren don’t like Ferrari truthfully stating that one of their drivers cheats on a regular basis, they’ve got the FIA (who are quite clearly in their back pockets) to pressure Ferrari and Alonso into making this retraction.

They were in no way “completely correct”, but there are now a bunch of fans that got way too overexcited, failed to rationally think for themselves, swallowed the Ferrari/Alonso party-line whole, and are now left high-and-dry when the team woke-up, realised how foolish they looked and backpedalled.

Whaddya think is more likely?

Ferrari were cynically playing to the peanut gallery, and of course you now feel just a little bit silly and ashamed that you got taken-in so readily … hence your denial, you dig in further, you double-down on a losing proposition.

I think they have been put in their place by the FIA. No one pays any attention to a temper tantrum. Alonso is just a whining little boy. He has no respect for any other driver, and Ferrari has no respect for any other team.

Great driver or not, great team or not, I have no respect for them now. All they do is complain, until they benefit from someone else’s misfortune, then they claim to be the masters. The man is a joke, and Ferrari are a bunch of one trick ponies. Importantly, this is ‘In my opinion’. Each to their own, and I respect that.

alonso was on a different planet by the end of the race and durin the interviews. not to knock koba’s driving but if alonso wasn’t already in a temper tantrum he would have never let him pass him like that. its barely half way through the season….but i dont see alonso gaining any ground on the redbulls or mclarens.

“At the time, I reacted emotionally and in that situation, it is all too easy to adopt a tone and say things that can be interpreted wrongly, giving rise to suspicions, something which I had no intention of doing.”

Briatore is stating hamilton should have been black flagged for breaking the rules apparently…..thats right briatore…take the moral highground!!!!! God forbid you would ever break the rules or dare i say cheat…..

Wasn’t that in some italian newspaper? Shows you how Ferrari thinks they should mouth off like that to get heard, apparently big mouths work in Italian sports press (after a bad week at World Cup too, tempers were rising?).

I am 100% Ferrari, I really like Alonso and the way he drives, but as for a race being “manipulated”, he didn’t complain about Singapore ’08, did he?, and he didn’t let go of his victory in the name of “fair race”, as far as I know. Both Felipe and Ferrari were the biggest losers then!! Say what about that, Alonso?

You know, that is a very good point. A year ago when the Singapore scandal became public knowledge, and Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds were fed to the wolves, Fernando Alonso was as quiet as a mouse.
I fully understand the argument that some people made back then that there was no proof of Alonso’s participation in the scandal concerning Piquet Jnr crashing his racing car in order to dictate the result of the grands prix. However, it was he who benefitted the most from the actions of others.
One cannot read Alonso’s recent comments, inwhich he almost preaches to us about the morality of a driver who races ‘by the rules’, without remembering the events of 2008. If this is the way Fernando really feels about Formula One, which he once described as ‘not being a sport anymore’ back in 2006, why did he not comment on the events of Singapore? Why did he not surrender that hollow victory in the name of good sportsmanship, which would have cleared him once and for all of any suggestion of wrongdoing?
Double standards! We have seen this before in F1 over the years with other drivers, but to say that Fernando’s and indeed Ferrari’s comments are abit rich is a massive understatement.
I also think it is a sign of weakness from both parties. I firmly believe that if Ferrari and their Spanish superstar driver concentrate more on what ‘they’ are doing right, and finetune their efforts, then they will push McLaren and Red Bull all the way to Abu Dhabi. They were unlucky in Valencia, they were mugged for sure, but crying about it in public only weakens their cause and emboldens their rivals.
Following the events of Hungary 2007, when Alonso and McLaren hit rock bottom as a partnership, the Spaniard turned out some of his better performances of that campaign. So much so that he nearly won the title, and tied Hamilton for second in the championship.
The only way is forward, but sometimes I feel these drivers need to look themselves in the mirror and be more realistic. Don’t do what England’s football players did, talk a good fight and then fold. Show your worth on the racetrack, not in the tv interviews before and afterwards.

Even though I don’t like Alonso very much, I completely understand his anger after the race. You have to feel sorry for him, he’s had an awful season.

In Melbourne he spun on lap 1 – without the spin, he’d probably win the race or finish 2nd.

In Malaysia he had an awful qualifying and a gearbox problem in the race + engine failure.

In Shanghai he had a nice opportunity to win, but jumped the start and received a penalty, hence finished 4th.

In Monaco he would probably fight for the win, but made that error in FP3 and had to star on the back of the grid.

He didn’t make it to Q3 in Turkey.

In Canada his race pace was similiar to Hamilton’s, but he finished 3rd because of traffic.

Now in Valencia he was again very fast, and would probably challenge for the win once he’d get on the harder compound, but had a lot of bad luck, whilst Hamilton had another good race.

Many people tend to think how much of bad luck Vettel had, losing two wins, but Alonso’s was even worse. Had there been no crashes and spins and retirements or anything from any driver, with finishing orders in races only depending on pure speed, Alonso would probably be leading the championship with a big advantage.

I don’t agree with Dave’s analysis of him being a flaky driver, he’s made some uncharacteristc mistakes amongst some Mark Webber levels of bad luck. But hes also but in some quite remarkable recovery drives with Malaysia one of the best drives of his career.

Yet despite all his problems we should remember he’s still with in striking distance of the lead of the WDC. 27 points is only 11ish in old money.

Can anyone explain how Alonso would’ve finished significantly higher than 8th if Hamilton had stayed behind the safety car? If Hamilton had been DQ’d, would that have prevented Alonso from being passed by Kobayashi?

I just want to say to all those who were extremely angry after the race that I told you so. I likened their behavior at the time to a herd of cattle simply obeying their master. Various individuals in the aftermath of the race simply wanted to regurgitate Fernandoâ€™s and Ferrariâ€™s talking points.

Do we feel smart now that we were so miffed for Fernando now that the man himself has said oops I was too heated in the moment and I maybe just overreacted at tad?

What will experts tell you about crisis situations such as the BP oil spill? They say that the first reports are almost always incorrect but you donâ€™t know exactly where. That is why we went from 1K to 5K to 20K to 60K barrels of oil. During the Turkey incident involving Hamilton and Button, it took more that 1 week for the situation to become fully clear.

Let us not be like cattle guys. Donâ€™t be so mad in your little cubicles for Lewis and Fernando while they have gotten over these things and are out partying with the elites.

I see Alonso got it right about “It would have only needed a few seconds more or less to totally change our race.”
If the SC call had come a few seconds earlier he could have dived down the pit lane and had a 5 sec penalty. And not seen what Hamilton did.

Too bad Spanky is no longer in charge at the FIA; you know he would have administered some corporeal punishment to Freddie’s back side,regardless of his retractions. After all, he IS slandering the sport!

No one will deny that the stewards created a giant cock up. And as the driver who was most negatively affected, Alonso has every right to be angry. In fact! don’t we want the drivers to show emotion? Don’t we want drivers to tell it how they see it? and to say things in the heat of the moment? that’s one of the things F1 should be!
Drivers are meant to be 110% emotionally involved.

But Luca, should not have joined in, For him to accuse the FIA of cheating is not good at all. A driver is meant to get upset when things don’t go his way, but a team boss is meant to have some restraint, And back the FIA up even if it was hard done by, for the good of the sport.

Now we have Alonso and Massa apologising, but for me, this only makes it worse. This is Luca making them apologies to make himself look better, when in reality, He must formally apologies for his comments.

Isn’t your criticism of the stewards a bit OTT, at the time of the Hamilton/SC incident, the only people in the F1 world looking at it were the people who saw it in front of their eyes.
The rest of the F1 world, all the officials, press TV cxamers’s etc were concerned about Mark Webber. Except possibly the other drivers and their race engineers who were warning their drivers to expect SC deployment.

Even if it is understandable, it was a cock up. I don’t think you can argue against that.

It took 16 (or close to) laps to come to a decision, which meant that Hamilton served his penalty 19(?) laps after the incident. My computer games have functions to allow me to easily go back watch replays, so I don’t see why the stewards shouldn’t have access to this relatively basic technology.

You can only say the stewards screwed up if they took an extraordinarily long time to decide. How about you go look at stats from previous races before you reach such premature conclusions? Would you whine so much if Mr Kobayashi wasn’t so slow and created a gap?

The only thing people will agree with is that the safety car rule needs looking at. Ham got the penalty prescribed in the rule book but it did not have the effect of more than offsetting any potential advantage. Most of this though was due to good fortune (short pit lane and slow Kobayashi). Your post is all about blame blame blame the fia with little recognition of the actual facts. Do you want the fia to start handing out arbitrary punishments or follow the rules?

Mike, I agree with your ‘main point’ about Luca and that it was natural for Alonso to be annoyed that his race was disrupted. But not the rest. The stewards delay has more than adequately been explained and I don’t think your computer game analogy holds up. Even I as a programming nerd can still distinguish between code generated scenarios and the complexities of real life! Now if you want to complain about the whole system of dealing with safety car and other infringements I’m with you! And yes we do like to see drivers 110% involved but you can’t seriously be saying that it is a good thing to be so unstable as to lose ones head to the detriment of the ability to perform at even 90% of ones capabilty? Final question. Suppose Fernando made it past the SC then jumped Lewis in the pits. Would Fernando have agreed that those left behind the SC had a right to complain? Or would he have said “I am not concerned with their position, these are the rules”?

The questions you haven’t asked are;
When were the stewards asked to investigate the Hamilton/SC incident,
Was all the evidence available, i.e. I understand they had to wait for the helicopter video.
Where they involved with other matters.

Only when you find those details can you decide if the Stewards were slow in reaching a decision, but not before.

“In fact! donâ€™t we want the drivers to show emotion? Donâ€™t we want drivers to tell it how they see it? and to say things in the heat of the moment? thatâ€™s one of the things F1 should be!
Drivers are meant to be 110% emotionally involved.”

Couldn’t agree more, I’d much rather support a driver who is passionate about his racing but has flaws than a driver who aspires to have no personality in front of the media so he can try keep a skweeky clean image for his sponsors.

I can understand his frustration, the way it worked out wasn’t right, and he lost out because of it.

Lewis got away with it, because he broke the rules – and the penalty was applied far to late to have any real significance. Having said that, I don’t think he broke them intentionally – and had he not broken them, he too would’ve been unfairly punted back into the pack with Alonso and co.

Though, Fernando is the last person I thought I’d hear beating the ‘manipulated race’ drum. When was the last truly manipulated race again?

The whole deployment was a mess, and I don’t think anyone was trying to gain too much of an unfair advantage, it just worked out really badly – and almost really badly for Lewis as well, who along with Alonso, certainly didn’t deserve to be back so far in the pack.

If Alonso new where the safety car line was, why didn’t he attempt to race the safety car to the line much earlier.
I think Alonso was also done in by the regulation that suggests all cars stay within a certain distance from the car ahead.

It’s such a brainless way to act, what alonso did after the race. First he wasn’t right, on the manipulation claim, second he gave the fia a good reason to give him a penalty for puttting the sport into disrepute.
And don’t forget that todt and alonso are not the best of friends. I don’t think he will be penalized, but i am pretty sure he’ll get a warning, just because the fia don’t want to throw more wood into the fire.

I hope we aren’t all going to be taken in either by Ferrari’s media-speak as spoken through the suddenly calm Alonso and goody-goody Massa. Of course Ferrari still want something to be done about this, and I think we will be hearing their grumblings all through the rest of the season, as much at the FIA as at McLaren, Sauber, the small teams and anybody else who ruins their races.
Also, just how much can the Sporting Working Group hope to achieve before the next race? Very little I would think. This is just a bit of PR from Todt to calm things down and make everybody feel that something is happening.
I think its going to take much longer and wider discussions to sort out the penalties so they fit the situation, and to get the Safety Car behaving as it should too, but I think the FIA have been too complacent this year, having satisfied themselves that by including an ex-driver in the stewards it automatically makes things better.
We still are lacking the ‘joined-up’ thinking required at a race-track, and at least an acknowledgement that both the drivers and the teams are not deliberately going to break the rules (no matter what Alonso thinks!)

Its not just about breaking rules. The appearence of the safety car signals there is a dangerous obstacle on the track. Overtaking it could have put lives of a number of people, marshalls, drivers, drivers needing help being removed from their cars etc at risk.

There is no doubt that Alonso has the natural talent to be THE top driver but he has become so weak mentally since 2007 that his results are badly affected by his inability to put that year behind him. Don’t think he’ll recover and get back to the top regardless of car/team.

I find it amazing that such am accomplished driver (Alonso)let this play on his mind the for the rest of the race and affect his performance, even letting the Sauber past on the last lap. Even Hamilton expressed surprise about this ‘weakness’ in one of his post race interviews. I can help thinking he would have gained a few more points at Valencia if just concentrated on his own race.

I was watching the Euro GP at a friends house and Alonso’s protests produced two main remarks. 1) “Me thinks the lady doth protests to much” was one and 2) “its funny how the cheaters always feel hardest done by when things don’t work out their way”. I just thought I’d throw that out there to mull over…